MOTORSPORT: MINI poised to drop Prodrive

The short marriage of MINI and Prodrive has been surprisingly successful but a divorce is imminent, while V8 Super car games  racing is to get a French flavour this year

Announcement likely within hours on WRC program
The BMW Group is set to abort its MINI World Rally Championship program with Prodrive, the company that operates Ford Performance Racing in Australia.

Britain's Autosport has reported that the end is imminent for what it called "a short and unhappy partnership". The publication has quoted a source within the BMW Group saying a board decision had been made to terminate the Prodrive relationship. It said there was speculation BMW may hand the project to an Italian company, there also has been talk it may run the program from Munich, or that it may quit the WRC altogether.

MINI ran a partial WRC program with Prodrive last year but cut back to what was to have been one full-time entry this after initially planning on two, sidelining Northern Ireland driver and 2009 Intercontinental Rally Champion Kris Meeke.

The team's spearhead driver, Spaniard Dani Sordo, finished second in a MINI in the recent Monte Carlo Rally that began this year's championship, giving the marque its third podium in seven events.

The team has been on its way to Sweden for the pre-event test before the second round of the championship on February 9-12 and Prodrive team boss Richard Taylor has been denying that a split is imminent, saying "there is no question of that at all".

"MINI remains committed," Taylor said. But Autosport quoted its source saying: "There was a chance this might have happened last year, but in the end it was decided to wait until after Monte Carlo... The decision has now been taken at board level and will be communicated in due course." Autosport said the confirmation would come today.

"Almost since the team was launched in April last year there has been unease between BMW and Prodrive concerning the financing of the program," it said.

It looms as further turmoil for the WRC, which ousted series British promoter and international telecaster North One just a couple of weeks before "The Monte" after the collapse of its parent company.

World motorsport's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), is still finalising many of the arrangements for this year's championship, while Australian Chris Atkinson's one-off return to the WRC in Sweden in a Subaru appears to be off. However, the WRC Academy Cup -- for rising rally stars in identical Ford Fiesta R2s -- has been saved.

The six-round series will begin at Portugal's WRC round next month, with the others in Greece, Finland, Germany, France and Spain.

Garry Rogers picks Frenchman as Holdsworth replacement
V8 Supercar racing will get a French flavour this season, with Garry Rogers Motorsport -- the Holden team being linked to Chrysler under the Car of the Future next year -- hiring French driver Alexandre Premat.

Rogers opted for Premat, who is two months short of his 30th birthday, over any young Australian alternative as his replacement for Lee Holdsworth, who has switched to Ford team Stone Brothers this year.

Premat has an impressive CV -- he won the prestigious Macau Grand Prix and Holland's Marlboro Masters in Formula Three, was a three-time winner in GP2 as teammate to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, helped France win the now-defunct A1 GP series in 2005-06, won the series title in the Le Mans sports car championship in 2008 and spent almost four seasons racing for Audi in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM).

Audi dumped him before the end of 2010 season for running in the New York Marathon when it wanted him to fully recover from a big DTM crash. After driving in sportscar racing last year for OAK Racing, Premat missed out on a seat in one of six BMWs as that manufacturer returns to the DTM in the season starting at Hockenheim in April.

Premat scored podiums but never a win in the DTM. He said he had watched V8 Supercars on TV, knew there was a vacancy at Garry Rogers Motorsport and made contact.

Rogers -- renowned as a spotter of Aussie talent, although he famously let Jamie Whincup go and he has become a multiple champion with Triple Eight -- said he "couldn't take the risk of signing another young bloke".

"I needed experience [with the arrival of the Car of the Future next season]," Rogers said. "I figured it would take us a minimum of two years with a young guy to get their minds around these cars and go through the crashes they will no doubt have.

"You need drivers who have a solid knowledge of the technical attributes of these cars and who are able to drive them very fast every lap."

Clock ticking fast to V8 Supercar season
Lots of other developments in V8 Supercars with the season launch two weeks away at Melbourne's Sandown circuit and the start of the championship in Adelaide on the first weekend of March.

Mark Winterbottom has extended his contract with Ford Performance Racing until the end of 2014. In the six years Winterbottom has been with FPR he has always finished top five in the championship, was runner-up in 2008 and third last year.

"A title still eludes us, but we are all starting to fire together [at FPR]," Winterbottom said. His teammate Will Davison is contracted there until the end of next year.

Dick Johnson Racing, Australian touring car racing's oldest team and which came close to extinction a few years back, will field four Triple Eight-built Falcons this year.

Apart from Steven Johnson and James Moffat there are entries for Dean Fiore and now Steve Owen -- on a licence still owned by Paul Morris. Owen drove the 2008 endurance races with the Johnson team.

While Moffat is from Melbourne and the team is famously Queensland-based, the son of the legendary Allan Moffat will launch his second season in the V8 Supercar Championship in Sydney. His crew is taking a chassis with roll cage and engine to Parramatta's Church Street Mall at noon on Monday and will fit the bodywork and wheels in half an hour.

Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat will be there. Meanwhile, Ford has appointed long-time staffer Graham Barrie its group manager, motorsport sponsorship and events, following previous motorsport manager Chris Styring's exit before the last year's final round.

Holden team Kelly Racing has confirmed Tony Dowe, a former lieutenant in the late Tom Walkinshaw's successful Le Mans sportscar program with Jaguar, its performance director as it enters its fourth year.

The Kellys are another four-car team, with brothers Rick and Todd Kelly and veteran Greg Murphy to be joined by Karl Reindler, although that has not been announced as negotiations continue over David Reynolds' departure for the third FPR Falcon.

Murphy will be doing double duty this year, driving in New Zealand's new V8 SuperTourer series as well as the V8 Supercar Championship. Murphy has already driven his Holden SuperTourer but the first major test of the 16 cars in the field will be at the Hampton Downs circuit between Auckland and Hamilton on February 10.

Scott Pye, a 22-year-old South Australian who had some junior openwheeler success in Britain and had Formula One aspirations, has returned home and his backer Roland Dane has slotted him into Triple Eight's plum V8 Supercar development series entry in place of last year's champion, Andrew Thompson.

Chevrolet out of British Touring Car Championship
Chevrolet has quit the British Touring Car Championship, in which it was runner-up to Honda last year, to concentrate on the defence of the World Touring Car Championship manufacturer and driver titles it has won the past two years.

Its Cruze driver line-up in the WTCC comprises reigning champion Yvan Muller, Rob Huff and Alain Menu.

Before news of its BTCC pullout it had lost two-time champion Jason Plato, who has a three-year deal to spearhead MG's return to the series.

The WTCC round scheduled for Argentina on July 8 has been dropped and will be replaced by another in Europe on April 29 -- meaning half the 12 rounds will now be in Europe.

Ferrari launch F1's first snow job of the year
Heavy snow in Italy has forced Ferrari to cancel the rollout of its new Formula One car for Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa at Maranello tonight. Instead it will be simply unveiled on the team's website, ferrarif1.com

McLaren launched it MP4-27 model midweek and while it looks little changed from last year's car the team said it was "a complete rework". Director of engineering Tim Goss said there already were "big plans -- upgrades for the front wing, rear wing, floor and bodywork".

Technical director Paddy Lowe said a lot of work had been done "around the back end".

"There is a lot more tidy packaging there and we have had to do a lot of work on exhausts [with the banning of blown diffusers this year]," Lowe said.

Red Bull Racing and sister team Toro Rosso will unveil their cars next Monday night, Australian time, before the first pre-season test gets underway at Jerez in Spain on Tuesday.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has tipped Australia's Mark Webber to have a good year with Red Bull.

"I don't want Red Bull to dominate in the same way [as its Sebastian Vettel did last year] but I fear that's what will happen -- and that's why I put my hopes on Mark Webber's shoulders," Ecclestone said. "I think he could win, for sure."

McLaren claimed not to have bothered developing a reactive ride height system as Lotus (nee Renault) and Ferrari had. The British team said it had never believed such a system could be legal and that it had been vindicated by the FIA's recent ban.

Lewis Hamilton's McLaren contract expires at the end of this year but he has said he is keen to renew it early in the season, which would avert fresh speculation of him joining Red Bull Racing.

Hamilton said at the MP4-27 launch he was feeling much stronger and "right" after last year's turmoil on and off the track. "I want to win every race [and] I think I can," he said.

German Adrian Sutil, replaced in the Force India team by countryman Nico Hulkenberg for this season, has been given an 18-month suspended sentence for slashing Lotus team part-owner Eric Lux with a broken champagne glass at a party after last year's Chinese Grand Prix.

Sutil also was fined 200,000 euros (A$245,500), which will be given to charity. Without a drive this year, Sutil said he would take time to reflect on the next move in his career.

Barrichello likes taste of IndyCar
Rubens Barrichello extended his two-day IndyCar test at Sebring in Florida with KV Racing to a third day, driving more than 500km and proclaiming, at 39: "I feel like a kid. I'm just enjoying myself."

KV, jointly owned by expatriate Australian tycoon Kevin Kalkhoven and American ex-racer Jimmy Vasser, may enter Barrichello if a sponsorship package can be arranged to fund it.

While Barrichello previously said he would never race on America's oval tracks, he said that now was "not a big issue". There are only four oval races in the series this year anyway -- Indianapolis, Texas, California and Iowa.

"I have to think it through," Barrichello said. "I could run on the road tracks. I could run the Indy 500." That could mean two ex-Ferrari F1 drivers in that classic, with Jean Alesi reportedly an entry with Lotus.

Veteran American openwheeler correspondent Robin Miller pointed out on speedtv.com this week that Barrichello, a veteran of more F1 starts than any other driver, is still only the same age Nigel Mansell was when he went to America in 1993 "and certainly appears to still have the fire".

Heats on Montoya and Ambrose for oval success
As the start of NASCAR's Sprint Cup nears, and with Danica Patrick a certain starter in the Daytona 500 in a fortnight, pressure is mounting on Australia's Marcos Ambrose and F1 refugee Juan Pablo Montoya to finally win an oval race.

Chip Ganassi has described his No. 42 team's effort last season which saw Montoya finish 27th in the series as "just pathetic".

Ambrose was 19th on the points table and NASCAR Illustrated has ranked him 18th ahead of his fourth full Cup season and second with Richard Petty Motorsports.

Sportscar racing a hive of activity
Peugeot may be lost to sportscar racing this year, but there is lots of other interest in it. Japan's Dome is to return to the Le Mans 24-Hour with an updated version of its S102 coupe from 2008, now powered by a 3.4-litre Judd V8 in place of its original V10.

Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo is part of the project, with former Peugeot driver Nicolas Minassian already on board and Sebastien Bourdais likely to be.

Dome founder Minoru Hayashi said his company was "going crazy" about the project.

Lotus will back a campaign in the new World Endurance Championship (WEC), including Le Mans, by Germany's Kodewa team. Kodewa's team principal will be Romulus Kolles, father of Colin Kolles of F1 fame and through whom Kodewa was involved in small Spanish team HRT's first two years in F1. It will run two Lola B12/80 coupes with Lotus-badged BMW V8 engines this year. Kodewa fielded Audi R10 TDIs at Le Mans in 2009-10.

German driver Nick Heidfeld, dislodged from F1 during last season, has joined Swiss sportscar team Rebellion Racing for the WEC, which starts at American's Sebring 12-Hour next month. Heidfeld will share a Lola-Toyota LMP1 car with ex-A1 GP champion Neel Jani and Alain Prost's son Nicolas for Rebellion.

Australian David Brabham, already down to drive a Honda Performance Development ARX-03a for JRM Racing in the WEC, also has committed to racing a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 for United Autosport in the Blancpain Endurance Series in Europe.

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